One objective of this publication is to reveal the topic of return migration as a common phenomenon of several migrant sending countries, even if the relevant political, economic, social and cultural patterns of these countries are not at all comparable.

Furthermore, this publication wants to show other experts in the field the different approaches a multilateral network like Transatlantic Forum on Migration and Integration can provide to analyze a complex subject like return migration and the potential that can be gained by these different approaches.

The first chapter of this publication is devoted to the scientific approach to the topic in question. Three authors, scientists in the field of immigration and integration, share the results of their research in Bulgaria, Cameroon and Poland. These case studies reveal the specific patterns in these three countries concerning the problems citizens are confronted with by returning to their countries of origin and how the process of reintegration can be more than challenging.

In the second chapter, the individuals concerned, the returnees themselves, are provided with a platform. The reader learns here about the perspective of returning migrants, about their actual experiences, positive as well as negative. And again, the diverse approaches of the participating experts of the TFMI network will be evident: To give the returnees their own voice in this publication, some have chosen interviews following standards established by social sciences. Others have chosen a more journalistic way to tell the stories of actual cases of returning migrants. At any rate, the reader will learn about individual and personal experiences of several migrants who return to Turkey, Cameroon, and Bulgaria. Once more, the similarities in these individual experiences of returning to a home country, even though the countries themselves seem to have nothing in common, become explicit.

A network like TFMI includes, apart from individual experts, many representatives of relevant
institutions and organizations in the field of immigration and integration. The third chapter of the publication wants to provide the reader with an overview of their various activities in the field of return migration.